Pleasure Bound - Complete (21 page)

“Okay, I’ll bite. Why only Queens?” The hungry look in his eyes faded into a curious glint.

“It is where the Goddess of Freedom resides.”

“Who’s she?”

“If you came from this area, Ben Hero, you would know. Nonetheless, she is the woman who is responsible for the freedom of our females.”

“Is she the woman in charge around here? Is there any way my brothers and I can meet her?”

There were more of them? Jacey swallowed against the sudden uneasiness his words created.

“There are more than the two of you?”

“Actually there are three of us here and more at home.”

“And they all talk and are educated like you?”

Ben nodded and took a bite out of his rabbit leg.

“Females and males. All educated. We all talk to each other. And there are many people who have many different languages and religions.”

“How interesting.” She tried to stifle the shiver of excitement ripping through her at the thought that males and females existed happily somewhere.

A faraway look flooded his gaze and his voice softened with warmth.

“Like I said earlier, where I come from, males and females live together and have their own babies. Mom’s first husband…well I guess I should use the word male, died. They only had one boy together. He’s my oldest brother, Joe. The one you met. After her male died, Mom took another mate and they’ve been popping out babies ever since.”

Jacey gulped at the mention of babies.

“How many babies?”

“Many.”

“This mom, why does she endure so many babies placed upon her by this male?”

Suddenly Ben laughed. It was a nice sound, a musical noise that came straight from his chest.

“Endure?” he shook his head. “She doesn’t endure babies, she wants them with the man she loves.”

“I’ve heard the word man before in our history lessons. The meaning is…” She searched her memory and nodded, “ Man means, a dominating force.”

Ben winced. “Dominating? Force? Not where I come from. Men and women are equal. They both have the same rights under the laws.”

“Fascinating concept,” Jacey admitted. Although she couldn’t imagine males having any rights on this planet, or having them running around loose.

She blinked with sudden realization. Ben Hero was a male and running loose. He was educating her about his world and his people’s laws. And she was sucking it up like a sponge. Perhaps Ben Hero was just innocently interested in her world or perhaps he wasn’t. Before she shared information with him about her world, she needed to find out more about this male and where he came from.

“It is said that males invented our language without consulting the females. They dominated the language as well as all other aspects of women’s lives. These males from your planet, are they like you? Or are they a dominating force as our ancestors were?”

He hesitated just a little too long before answering. It made Jacey uneasy. Made her wonder if perhaps she’d been wrong to trust herself with him.

“You don’t have to worry about that. My brothers and I are harmless.”

“You are far from harmless, Ben Hero,” she muttered.

“I am?” A cocky grin fluttered across his sensuous lips and Jacey’s pulse picked up speed. Instantly she knew her brief suspicions about him were incorrect. He was genuinely interested in her world and her and she needed to change the subject or she would end up fucking this male right here and now, losing her heart to him in the process.

“Freedom Sea is at least two days walk if you go straight through The Acid Zone. Or three and half days if we go around,” she said.

“We?” he asked.

Did she detect hope in his voice? Or was it only wishful thinking on her part that he wanted her to go with him?

“You prefer I not tag along?”

“On the contrary, it would be my pleasure to have you with me.”

Amusement twinkled in his eyes and Jacey wondered how horrible she would feel when the time came to part.

Finishing off her rabbit leg, she helped herself to another piece of meat. All that running around and the other activities she’d indulged in with Ben Hero last night and yesterday had left her famished.

He watched the fire silently as she ate and she wondered what he was thinking. Wondered if perhaps he wanted her to guide him to Freedom Sea simply because he would be pleasured by fucking her.

She tried to ignore the sultry look clouding his hooded eyes as he stared into the fire and the way it made her heat up yet again. She preferred to believe the burning of her flesh was a direct result of the fierce sun beating down on her nakedness.

“You sure can put the chow away,” he said as he watched her lick the rabbit juice from her fingers.

His comment suddenly made her flush with anger.

“I’m simply hungry because I haven’t eaten anything in two days. There is nothing more to it,” she snapped.

She’d heard that Paradisian women got ravenously hungry when pregnant. Also their hormones changed drastically, leaving some women very emotional and with an intense sexual appetite.

She certainly had an unbelievable sexual appetite since meeting this male slave, not to mention her emotions had gone haywire around him. She couldn’t stop herself from watching his every movement or from craving to touch his hard flesh.

“Your skin’s starting to get red, Jace. Why don’t you go inside? I’ll go take another look and see if those blonde cannibals are gone before we head out.

“We can’t leave today. It’s already too late.”

He looked at her oddly, as if he suspected she was stalling their departure so she could satisfy herself again with him tonight.

“It would be best not to return the same way we came, in case The Breeders are still searching for us,” she explained. “If we wait until tomorrow morning, it’ll give us that much more extra time in The Acid Zone before we re-enter the forest at another angle. Besides, there is a slave training cabin we can stay at tomorrow night before we—.” She cut herself off.

“Before we what?” he asked cautiously.

“Before we decide what to do next.”

He nodded, accepting her quick response. She’d almost blown it by telling him she was thinking it might be better if they parted tomorrow. Before she lost the rest of her mind to this insanity of wanting to stay with this male or lost her heart to him.

She stood and headed inside. The damp coolness relieved her, but only to a certain degree.

She watched Ben Hero, as with a rabbit leg in hand, he climbed along the rocks of the craggy outcrop.

She had to admit, he was a magnificent specimen. As he climbed, bands of muscles quivered in all the right places in his sweat streaked naked body. His thighs were powerfully built. The muscles in his abdomen were rigid, and the width of his shoulders, startling.

What a shame she would have to part with him.

That thought jolted her from her dreamy state and dampened her spirits.

Why in the name of the Goddess of Freedom had she even entertained the idea she could keep the male all for herself? And why was she even considering letting him go?

She didn’t have to lose him at all. She could use him to somehow barter a way into keeping her Queen position and then her hub could house him in the brothel town and she could visit him any time she wanted.

Jacey blinked in shock at the way her thoughts had headed. She was a Queen and she should know better. Negotiations about keeping her position, especially after what Ben had done to her—and what she wanted to do with him again—were totally impossible. It was her duty to turn herself into the authorities.

But first, she had to find some way of getting Ben far away from here. If anyone found out about the little illegal tidbit of him being educated, he’d be in big trouble and she right along with him. It would be best if she could keep casualties to a bare minimum and face the music, so to speak, on her own.

A familiar cry from somewhere in the distance split through the humid air.

“What was that?” Ben called down softly from where he stood halfway up the rock.

“The battle cry of The Yellow Hairs. I think we might have been discovered.”

Chapter Six

As it turned out, they hadn’t been discovered. A few minutes later, Ben and Jacey crouched low behind a rock and watched six blonde and very naked women racing along the plateau about half a mile away. Each wore a quiver of arrows on her back, and each held tight a bow in her hand.

“They’re young females on their first male hunt,” Jacey whispered. She pointed about a hundred yards in front of the blondes. Across the barren plateau, a dark-haired naked man stumbled away from the women. An arrow was buried in his left shoulder, blood poured from the wound.

“Shit!” Ben swore softly. He made a move to get up but Jacey’s firm grip on his elbow stopped him cold.

“Do not help him! He has already been hit by an arrow. It is too late for him.”

“The hell it’s too late,” Ben growled and tried to yank himself free. Jacey refused to let him go.

Instinctively he knew he wouldn’t be able to free himself from her death grip unless he hurt her, and he didn’t want to do that.

He watched helplessly as the male wavered and finally fell to his knees. The first female to reach him let out another spine tingling cry that made Ben shiver despite the heat boring into his skin from the intense sun overhead.

His heart crashed painfully against his chest as he watched the rest of the blondes surround the man who now writhed on the rocky ground.

“The Yellow Hairs are well known for poisoning their arrows. Poisons that render a male helpless almost instantly or can kill him slowly. We have no way of telling which one was used on him. If I were to venture a guess at the way he is suffering and the females are merely standing around watching, I’d say it is a deadly poison for the male.”

A sickening knot clutched his guts as the male suddenly stiffened and then went still.

The females cried out their victory in one unified shout.

“He’s dead,” Jacey whispered. “We must go. Hurry. They may come here.”

Ben cursed quietly as she led him back down to the cave opening.

“We will go deeper into the caves,” she said.

“What about the fire? If we put it out, the smoke will definitely attract their attention.”

“Leave it, but bring the rabbit,” she instructed. “I’ll start dousing the torches and meet you inside. Hurry!”

Ben grabbed the two ends of the spit containing the rabbit just as another volley of spine tingling female cries rent the air.

“Poor bastard,” he muttered and hurried to join Jacey.

* * * * *

They traveled quickly through the damp cave, Jacey very confident in the way she sidestepped the mile-deep potholes, urging him to stay close to her.

“Obviously you’ve been in these parts before.” Ben kept his voice low enough so only Jacey could hear.

“I trained nearby.”

“Trained?”

“For Queen status. Watch your step here,” she pointed to a sharp two-inch spear like rock object sticking straight up from the cave floor like some oversized thumbtack. This certainly would cause some serious damage to a bare foot, and that’s the last thing they needed when they were on the run.

“Exactly what do you have to do to train as a Queen?” he asked as he followed closely.

“Many things. We learn how to hunt, fish, build shelters, history of our planet, science, business aspects of running our own hub, different types of technology…” Her words trailed away and she pointed out a nasty-looking projection sticking about a foot out from the cave wall. If she hadn’t pointed it out, the sharp rock would have sliced right into the side of his bare hip.

He cursed silently as he skirted the item and hurried to keep up to her.

Holding his torch higher in an effort to see better, his eyes became glued to the sensuous sway of her hips and the gorgeous crack in her ass. What would she do if he came up behind her and reamed himself straight into her ass? Would she struggle? Or would she welcome him?

He felt himself hardening at the thought. Felt the now-familiar heat of lust rip through his blood.

Damn her! Why’d she have to be so beautiful? So perfectly toned. So sensually curvy? Not so much as an ounce of fat on her body.

She was like a perfect ten. Hell, an eleven.

Ben frowned with disgust. Was he so shallow that he was attracted to a woman because of her great looks? He shook his head in denial. He’d gone out with lots of Earth gals with great looking bodies like Jacey’s. They’d been nice eye candy but their attitudes had been lacking something. Jacey possessed something different. Something he liked.

He couldn’t be sure what. Perhaps it was because of her innocence to sexual experiences with a man? Her vulnerability? Maybe he liked her because of the way she gazed at him with that dreamy look in her eyes? He’d never seen a woman look at him like that before.